Dispatches from the Youth Climate Movement
This is the kind of thing I LOVE to see. Last month, Ohio became the first state to require new public schools to be built to LEED standards and are embarking on a major green renovation initiative as well – and they’re financing it with billions of dollars from a tobacco settlement!
For those who haven’t seen it yet, here’s a recent study that makes a very strong case for Green Schools.
At the end of 2002, freaked out about the deepening climate crisis, Billy dropped out of Yale University in the middle of his junior year to build a youth movement. He co-founded and led the Energy Action Coalition, which has become the largest youth advocacy organization in the world working on clean energy and global warming issues. Since early 2008, Billy has expanded his work beyond the Energy Action Coalition into a focus on building the green economy and creating green jobs for young people. He has been a consultant for Green for All on their "Green Jobs Now" day of action and developed the idea and campaign to create a Clean Energy Corps, a proposal based on the Civilian Conservation Corps designed to rebuild the country and create millions of new jobs and opportunities for community service. The community service component, The Clean Energy Service Corps, has become law as part of the Serve America Act, and other components of the proposal have been incorporated into the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act and the American Clean Energy and Security Act. A serial social entrepreneur, Billy has helped launch dozens of youth, climate and green jobs related organizations and initiatives, including Green Owl Records, a green music label affiliated with Warner Music Group; The Navajo Green Economy Coalition, which recently passed groundbreaking green jobs legislation on the Navajo Nation; and the Alignment Process, a collaborative of 50 large progressive organizations working on passing strong federal legislation to build a green economy and address global warming. Originally from New York City, he now lives with his wife Wahleah Johns and daughter Tohaana in Flagstaff, AZ.
Thanks for sharing this billy! This is Awesome!
this is great. i wish i could say i had something to do with it but i didn’t – but rest assured there’s plenty of other stuff in the works here in Ohio :0)